A Chinese obstetrician was given a suspended death sentence yesterday for abducting newborn babies and selling them to traffickers, in a case that drew widespread outrage.
Zhang Shuxia (張淑俠) sold seven children in Shaanxi Province, the intermediate court in Weinan said on a verified social media account, adding that she had tricked parents into giving up their babies by telling them the newborns were sick or had died.
Her penalty is likely to be commuted to life imprisonment.
The case highlighted child trafficking in China, where tens of thousands of children are believed to be stolen each year. Most are sold within the country to meet demand fueled by a one-child limit and traditional preference for sons, while parents accuse apathetic police of failing to investigate.
Zhang obtained most of the newborns in Fuping County by falsely telling their parents that they were ill or had died, before selling them to traffickers for prices reaching 47,000 yuan (US$7,800), the court said.
The court found that Zhang had persuaded a mother to give up a pair of newborn female twins last year on the grounds that one had died of disease, while the other supposedly had injured arms and legs.
Chinese parents are sometimes willing to give up disabled children because of the limits imposed by the country’s one-child policy, as well as widespread social stigma about disability.
Another baby she sold was later found dead in a ditch, dumped by a trafficker, the court said.
Zhang had received 20,000 yuan each for several female babies, it added, while one male baby fetched 47,000 yuan in 2011.
Several intermediate baby dealers were implicated in the case, and some of the abducted babies were later found by police and returned to their parents, the court said.
It sentenced Zhang to death with a two-year reprieve, adding that her actions “had a negative impact on society.”
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